Light: shade to part shade zone 6 and warmer, same north or
full
sun north with sufficient moisture

Pests and problems: none significant, leaves may scorch in
drought

Landscape habit, uses: woodland, back of border,
native-style
planting, butterflies; nice contrast with yellow foliage as of variegated
meadowsweet, yellow flowers of ligularia, or white foliage of artemisias
or
variegated Solomon's seal or Japanese painted fern; good choice for late
summer
bloom, and a choice plant for accent or specimen

Other interest: when named by Linnaeus in 1750 the species foetidus
was ground into powder and stuffed into mattresses and pillows to drive
away
(Latin fugo) bugs (Latin cimex); Cimicifuga genus
is native
but this cultivar was selected in 2008 in the Netherlands by Marco van
Noort and
A.H. Rijnbeek from seedlings of 'Brunette'; received an ISU perennial
plant
award in 2012 ; deer and rabbit resistant; another genus reclassified by
botanists after gene studies, moving Cimicifuga into Actaea,
although many catalogs still list it by the former, and the original
naming by
Linnaeus was in the latter; cohosh derives from the Algonquin word for
rough,
referring to the root texture; this plant is with other
purple-leaved
cultivars in the species simplex (Atropurpurea group); shorter
than
similar purple-leaved cultivars; Cimicifuga has been used
medicinally,
mainly for female ailments, but used improperly herbally it can be harmful
and
may cause liver damage